Video freezing!

so i usually watch a movie or show through either dvd or my external harddrive daily, and the videos would freeze up once then continue playing flawlessly, now the videos stop every few second freeze for about 30 seconds (audio still going)then continue playing. It makes it impossible to watch. I use either smplayer or xine, both freeze.

I have Opensuse 11.2 and my GeForce 6100 nForce graphics card installed correctly i believe. Anyone that can help ?

Anytime I had such an issue, I would think about running the System Monitor (System > Monitor > System Monitor) which runs the program ksysguard. It can tell you total CPU usage but also the amount of CPU time consumed by all loaded programs, looking for something really high. Can we assume you are using the nVidia binary driver?

Thank You,

if by binary driver you mean the one from this site, yes:P . Lol i’m a newbie… Thats the driver i had installed.

You can read the following document on loading nVidia video drivers in openSUSE:

Nvidia Installer HOWTO for SUSE LINUX users

Did you try out the system monitor to see what might be slowing you down?

Thank You,

It might help if you told us :

  • what desktop you are using (KDE ? Gnome ? )
  • what media player application you are using ?
  • what output video mode you have selected in this application ? Note sometimes “xvideo” (or “xv” ) gives better output video performance than “x11” and that is selectable in one’s multimedia application
  • whether you have special desktop effects enabled ? Disabling them (if enabled) can often improve video performance.
  • what graphic driver you have in use ?

It might also help if you read up on some graphic card theory so that you can better liaise in this effort to help your problem: openSUSE Graphic Card Practical Theory Guide for Users - openSUSE Forums

Also take a look at this post in that thread which explains to you how to determine what graphic driver is in use:
openSUSE Forums - View Single Post - openSUSE Graphic Card Practical Theory Guide for Users

I am using 11.2 Gnome, xine, or smplayer i use for application of either dvd or .avi format. I didn’t know i can change the output of what the application mode should be i will try that. I do have desktop effects enabled maybe i will try to disable them and my graphics card is GeForce 6100 nForce graphics card.

jdmcdaniel3 I havn’t tried system monitor. I am a bit confused on how that will tell me what might be causing the problem. Does it make logs? or will i have to be watching that while the video is going?

If videos have worked well at an earlier date (even with desktop effects) and this is a new phenomenon, then you should try and think about what you have changed.
The graphics driver is the most likely culprit, depending if you installed one and how. You will generally need to re-install such after a kernel update.

The other possibility address here is something hogging CPU/RAM.
Open a terminal and type: top
The resulting output should look something like this:
http://thumbnails18.imagebam.com/5538/90fd9555379296.gif](http://www.imagebam.com/image/90fd9555379296)

i didnt know if you wanted the output of the top or not… here it is.
http://thumbnails21.imagebam.com/8004/f82a7580034586.gif](http://www.imagebam.com/image/f82a7580034586)
I also just disabled desktop effects. and will keep open system manager to see what happens.

Are you saying the top one of those is with effects and the lower without?

They both look OK
I see beagle in there, perhaps you should disable or even delete it?

In the case of smplayer, it looks something like this:
http://thumbnails13.imagebam.com/7998/49230b79976110.gif](ImageBam)
Typically xv (or xvideo) provides superior performance. But that does not work on all pcs nor for all drivers.

Disabling desktop effects makes a big difference, not so much when things are idle, but it makes MOST a difference when an application such as a video player is playing.

Well the desktop effects seemed to solve the problem. And with “top” command i dont know why there was two, when I typed in top thats what came up.